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Lamborghini confirms Le Mans Daytona hybrid entry for 2024

Last August, Racer magazine reported that Lamborghini had green-lit a project to put a car in global endurance racing's Le Mans Daytona hybrid (LMDh) class, but wasn't ready to announce it yet. The brand's head of motorsport for the U.S. said at the time that work on a factory endurance program was "90 percent of the way there." Now, the last 10 percent has been completed, and the Sant' Agata Bolognese carmaker announced its LMDh car will start racing in 2024. The class, developed by the U.S. IMSA organization in collaboration with France's ACO, begins competing next year. Here's the refresher on the top to endurance racing categories, LMDh and Le Mans Hypercar (LMH), both of which are allowed to run in the FIA World Endurance Championship and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. LMDh cars use a spec chassis provided by one of four suppliers, Dallara, Ligier, Multimatic or Oreca. LMDh teams can use any engine and electronics they want, but they will all fit a spec hybrid unit supplied by Bosch, a spec lithium-ion battery from Williams Engineering, and a spec gearbox from Xtrac. Max horsepower is limited to about 680. VW sister brand Porsche opted for a Multimatic chassis powered by a turbocharged V8. Sportscar365 believes Lamborghini will buy a Ligier chassis. Since the R8 and its V10 are headed for the dustbin, Lamborghini could use a V8 as well. Every team creates its own bodywork, the limit being a 4:1 ratio of drag to downforce and a single aero package for the year to keep costs down. As the teaser shows, Lamborghinis on the track will be known by their Y-shaped DRL signatures, too.  Audi had been planning an LMDh entry, but dropped out when it confirmed its eventual entry into Formula 1. So for the moment, Lamborghini will join other LMDh manufacturers Acura, Alpine — which will switch from its current LMH car to LMDh in 2024, BMW, Cadillac, and Porsche. That latter brand is also going into F1, but hasn't axed any other programs. The LMH class is based on roadgoing hypercars, a manufacturer required to sell 20 of the retail hypercars over a two-year period to qualify. Although output's capped to around 680 hp as with LMDh, manufacturers can develop their own engines, gearboxes and hybrid systems. Discrete bodywork is allowed, held to the same drag-to-downforce ratio limit. The current LMH entries are Alpine, our own Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus, and Toyota.

Lamborghini Murcielago SV reverse-engineered by a team from Iran

Iranian engineers successfully made themselves a copycat Lamborghini Murcielago SV. In looks, if not in performance, that is. The most interesting aspect behind the project is that they say it was created using Lamborghini's original data. They took a serious left turn when it came to the powertrain though, because sitting behind the driver is a 3.8-liter Hyundai V6. Not quite the 6.5-liter V12 monster in the actual Murcielago SV. Massoud Moradi, the director of the project, thinks that nobody would be able to tell the difference between this car and Lamborghini's from an appearance standpoint. "All parts of the body, inside the car and precise mechanics of the car are manufactured and mounted based on the original ... Murcielago platform. Its chassis is also one and one with the original," Massoud says. One of the reasons Massoud and his team embarked on this project was to learn how Lamborghini made its supercars. They made their replica after taking apart a real Murcielago and designing new parts based on the original Lamborghini bits. The project to make this thing started four years ago, and the team didn't spend "any time planning or testing the car." Now that's a clear indication you probably don't want to drive this thing. Just because it's designed to be a copy of the Murcielago doesn't mean it's going to perform anything like it on the road. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. We'll admit the exterior design is pretty spot-on compared to the actual Murcielago SV, as you can see in the video above (which comes from RT, a network funded by the Russian government). Everything apparently lines up to the original dimensionally, and it uses a bunch of carbon fiber and composite components throughout. Moradi claims a top speed of at least 174 miles per hour — there's no word on what, if any, modifications have been done to the Hyundai engine and transmission to achieve such a speed. So count us skeptical for the time being. The Iranian team wants to make more of them too. Moradi suggested that the small company could make 50-100 units per year if they were to go into production. He'd like future iterations of the car to have larger V8 and even V10 engines, too. Might we suggest some testing first? And what does Lamborghini think of this whole operation? These guys purposefully copied one of Lamborghini's designs with an intent to eventually make money off of it.

Lamborghini could be sold or spun off from the Volkswagen Group

Volkswagen is reportedly considering a sale or stock listing for its high-end Lamborghini brand. The German automaker is looking to fold the Italian supercar brand into a separate legal entity, reports Bloomberg, which cites "people familiar with the matter" who don't want to be identified "because the deliberations are confidential and no decisions have been made." Any of this sound familiar? The goal of spinning off Lamborghini would be to stockpile more cash and other resources for VW's massive planned push into electric vehicles. Back in March, reports circulated that Volkswagen's "Vision 2030" corporate plan might include plans to focus on the brand's core brands — VW, Audi and Porsche. That means the futures of fringe players like Lamborghini, Bentley, Bugatti, motorcycle brand Ducati and design firm Italdesign (and note this isn't a comprehensive list of brand's under the expansive VW Group umbrella) are up in the air. VW, according to the report, is targeting a market value of $220 billion, which is a big jump from the brand's current $89 billion valuation. Bloomberg pegged Lamborghini's valuation at around $11 billion back in August, buoyed by sales and profits generated by the introduction of the Urus sport utility vehicle. On the flip side, Lamborghini is currently grappling with how best to update its supercar lineup in the face of ever-increasing emissions regulations.